12-23-2023, 01:49 PM
(12-20-2023, 08:51 PM)msqueri Wrote: * Extremely unsurprising but also exciting to hear Taylor say Elijah Brown reminds him a lot of Jake Browning. This is really the obvious comparison for Taylor to make in light of high school pedigree, physical skills (and lack thereof), accuracy, game manager ability, poise, and leadership. Obviously we can't expect Brown to become Pac-12 Player of the Year (at least I hope people realize that is not a reasonable expectation and should be a dream) but there's a lot lining up that we should like in terms of Taylor's first full class including a QB tailor-made (pardon the pun) for his offense and style. As Taylor said later in the press conference, a key similarity seems to be that both are distributors. While Brown's profile does not compare to Luck's, there are some real echoes in terms of the new coach getting the QB1 to build around. (If only we had a DeCastro and Martin......guess we can hope we do in this small but credible OL class but that's asking just as much as Brown becoming Pac-12 Player of the Year).
* Eyebrow-raising phrase for Taylor to say he feels like Stanford is "the only outlier in college football." Pretty stark way to put it but to a degree we've always felt that way and leaning into it is almost inevitable for a Stanford coach. "We have two Plan As here at Stanford" with regard to the NFL and life after football is a great, great phrase. Raise to whoever coined that. We often have occasion to comment on how Taylor doesn't fashion himself or seem good at being a marketer, but these phrases as well as the discussion of 50 years as a non-football player even if you're extraordinary show some nice packaging of things we've been selling for decades.
* I couldn't quite tell if the line about hoping to sign a couple more was a throwaway riff on the numbers he was citing or if we really might not be done. I still don't have a great handle on our roster numbers. Taylor says we are pretty close to 85, indicating he knows (as he should/as I think we knew he would based on the last few weeks) the lay of the land in terms of who is back.
* Taylor always manages expectations with regard to the transfer portal but he seemed to do so even more carefully this time. The more or less writing off of graduate school transfers kind of surprised me. Even before Taylor we had Isaiah Sanders and Patrick Fields. I don't know why we would pooh pooh the idea there could be a good graduate fit (and I would be especially attracted to ones at offensive line in years when our super senior cohort is light there). If we can impress upon the administration to make things a bit easier for grad transfers to find a path it becomes even more possible. I take Taylor's comment as indicating that we tried to do that and it's not going anywhere, but undergrad transfers could be possible.
* Taylor said we're looking at a few transfer possibilities. Eagerly awaiting to see who this might be. I wonder if lack of traction as guys seek out better football opportunities is just as big a factor as Stanford admissions.
* Very interesting point that Taylor admitted (in a polite way) to negative recruiting other schools (or you could say framing our approach as a positive) by contrasting our not bringing in tons of recruits as a better environment for high school prospects. One of several reasons why high school recruiting should be easier for us going forward (along with the decreasingly contested battlespace).
* I liked the point contrasting somebody like Benedict Umeh (obvious Stanford Man) with other recruits whose fit may not be so obvious but when you get to know them they connect to Stanford. Taylor explicitly took this to being open about recruit coming from anywhere and any socioeconomic background. This gives me a good feeling, albeit totally subjectively, that Taylor is not primed to fall into the self-selector trap Stanford coaches have had trouble with for decades. I would much rather Taylor recruit football players and then find ways to tell them/himself stories about their Stanford fit (maybe totally genuinely, maybe a bit contrived) than say that only nerds or only gentlemen or only guys with a firm head on their shoulders consciously prioritizing the 40 year decision should come to Stanford. Liked this answer. Heck, Taylor even said we will "fight those battles" for guys who don't value the Stanford degree! Pretty clear he wants football players.
* Taylor talked about RBs who are explosive and can run through tackles. I don't know if he meant this as shade at Smith and Filkins or not, but probably. Don't know if it means anything that Taylor talked about Ford first then Davis then Tabb, though the Tabb discussion did seem a bit perfunctory and the Ford discussion particularly effusive. The bottom line is Taylor said they can play immediately, reinforcing the pretty obvious sense that we are bringing in a new RB room and these three will be integral to the competition. It's actually a bit surprising to me that none of the RBs are among the early enrollees. At the same time, RB is presumably a lot less dependent on early acclimation than QB, DL, or OLB would be.
* Taylor talked about Chase Farrell going to be the fastest guy on the team. Taylor said 10.3 100 meter, which I'll forgive the shady rounding up from 10.38. Obviously 10.38 is really, really, really fast. I've never made bones about my deep skepticism of the football translation of the Farrell brothers but as I've pointed out this fall Chase put together a nice senior year and significantly increased my sense he could translate. Taylor was pretty blunt that he thinks the speed is something we lack and Farrell gives us that, so I would anticipate we are intentional about working it in, maybe even in fairly direct substitution of Bryce Farrell (who Taylor essentially confirmed is coming back).
* Interesting that Taylor was so forthcoming - not just that, volunteering the information totally unsolicited - about Mosley's ACL injury and prognosis. I have some concerns about Mosley's injury propensity. Hope Taylor's optimism is justified and rewarded. By the way, some have talked about Taylor's comments on the WRs as indicating great excitement and I think that's a bit much. It didn't sound any different to me than nice things he says about any player/recruit.
* Very notable that Taylor said Elijah Brown will be able to compete right from the beginning. Cue lots of off-season debate and maybe some drama. I also think it was interesting that Ben gave Taylor an opportunity to talk about managing expectations and, rather than doing so, Taylor talked about how Brown has always played with big expectations and pressure. No expectation management here. In fact, it's striking to hear all the direct, confident praise for Brown after the last year of hearing about how difficult QB is and how nobody is ever perfect and [Daniels/Lamson] do some things really well and other things need more consistency. We may be seeing the difference in how Taylor talks about a QB he thinks is good and ones he thinks he has to get by with. That may be too harsh on our current guys, especially Daniels who is at least capable of being mediocre, and it also could be a reflection on setting (Signing Day is a time to tout potential, the rest of the year is when things get more real) but it was a pretty interesting juxtaposition.
* Kind of an interesting statement that the majority of outgoing transfers "have thought through it." What, they all haven't thought through it? Might this be subtle sour grapes at Yurosek?
One thing is guaranteed - Elijah will not be pac-12 player of the year.